A poem I love.

I figured this would be a good way to start my new blog, with a poem that I love:

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

It reminds me that I don't have to be perfect, and that I don't need to berate myself when things don't go as planned, etc. etc. You know, typical human being stuff. I can just exist and be and trust that my experience is the only one, and that it's ok. I hope this poem provides the same for you.